It’s hard to imagine, when you look at your sweet little five-year-old, that anyone could want to hurt her; but unfortunately, sex trafficking of children – even very young children – is a real and serious problem around the world. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there are 4,000 to 20,000 stranger abductions in the United States each year. Some of these children are found by law enforcement and returned to their families or to another safe environment. But others live for years in captivity, often as sex slaves.
Angel Studios brings these horrific truths to the screen on July 4, when their new film Sound of Freedom opens in theaters.
Catholic World Report talked recently with three noted actors, all Catholic, who each played an important role in bringing Sound of Freedom to moviegoers.
Jim Caviezel, known for starring in The Passion of the Christ (2004) and for several other film and television roles, stars as Tim Ballard, the real-life hero who gave up his government job to devote himself to rescuing trafficked children.
Mexican producer and actor Eduardo Verastegui produced Sound of Freedom and also plays the role of Paul Delgado, the man who funded the operation that Tim Ballard and his team carried out in Columbia.
Alejandro Monteverde, known for Bella (2006) and Little Boy (2015), is the director and co-writer of the film.
The three talked about their faith and about the film which will, they hope, open hearts and minds to the widespread problem of child trafficking.
Director Alejandro Monteverde described his reaction when he learned how insidious child trafficking is in our culture. “One night I was watching TV,” he said, “and I saw a piece on child trafficking. And I said in my heart, ‘I have to do something about this!’ One thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, I was meeting Tim Ballard.”
Eduardo Verastegui expressed his own horror at the prevalence of child sexual abuse. “From day one, when I met Tim Ballard and I knew what they were doing – undercover agents around the world, rescuing children – I was in shock. I wanted to know, how can I help? I began praying, ‘God, send us an army!’ I believe that Jim Caviezel was this army.”
Verastegui reported that when he and Alejandro extended an invitation to Caviezel to play the role of Tim Ballard, the actor dove full force into the role and joined them in their commitment to fight sexual trafficking of children. “Most actors,” Eduardo explained, “…you pay them, they come to the premiere, then they go on to the next movie. But Jim has been here every day.”
Jim Caviezel was passionate in his endorsement of the film. “Don’t be afraid to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, being told through this wonderful man” he exclaimed. “Faith without works is dead. We’ve got to save our country and save our children!”
And saving captive children, Caviezel believes, is the next important movement to emerge in America. “This is a movement that comes directly from the people,” he said. “When we did The Passion of the Christ, they attacked our faith. This time, we can expect opposition. But if you love the Eucharist and you believe in the Eucharist and in Mother Mary, you’re on the tip of the spear of that movement.”
In Sound of Freedom, Caviezel plays a Special Agent for the Department of Homeland Security who was assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. In that capacity, he was an undercover operative for the U.S. Child Sex Tourism Jump Team. But when his superiors ordered him to return to the U.S., Caviezel explained, he instead opted to stay in Columbia in the “heart of the lion’s den.” He didn’t care about the risks. Caviezel said he was reminded of the Gospel passage in which Jesus shows us the Good Samaritan.
Caviezel voiced his hope that there would be two million moviegoers on opening weekend. “We’re not there yet,” he admitted; although three weeks before opening weekend, they had already pre-sold more than 300,000 tickets. (By June 29th, that number had grown to nearly 600,000.)
Eduardo Verastegui summarized the goal: to end child trafficking. “But if that is the goal,” he asked Tim Ballard, “and we have the military, why aren’t we finished with this problem?” He believed that what is needed is a movement which will put pressure on many areas, and which will ultimately inspire much needed action.
Jim Caviezel agreed. Recalling his earlier role as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, he said, “There were two guys who were murderers, who watched The Passion and turned themselves in. We have the possibility [due to Sound of Freedom] of working with people from the Homeland Security Agency, who know what’s going on and how traffickers work. We’ve got to fight back against trafficking! And those agents who watch this film will be unafraid to take on the challenge.”
The intensity of Caviezel’s commitment to change the culture is evident. He is critical of the L.A. Dodgers, who had welcomed the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to their field. He condemned the recent controversies involving Budweiser and Target and other corporations which are attacking Christian culture in the U.S. and worldwide“No more! You’re offending me and 2.2 billion Christians.” Caviezel said. “Stop going after our children! Stop killing our babies! It’s time to move on our culture, and this starts right now, with Tim Ballard, Eduardo Verastegui and Jim Caviezel!”
Alejandro Monteverde has a message for those who oppose child trafficking, but who haven’t stepped forward to help end it. “The main thing,” he says, “…and I say this with love and not judgment – but we tend to complain a lot about the poison from the media, yet we don’t do anything about it! It’s important as Catholics that we support each other – and especially support stories that can create change. How many films do we see in which our faith is depicted as the darkest and the worst? It almost makes one embarrassed to be Catholic! But please – instead of cursing the darkness, why don’t you come and light a candle? Come support this film, so we can continue to make strong, positive movies.”
Sound of Freedom opens on the July 4 weekend (starting on July 3 in some venues). Tickets are available through Angel Studios; or check the listings in your local theater.
• Official Trailer for Sound of Freedom:
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This film is a perfect example of a man who knows how men are supposed to act and who then acts like a man. Juxtapose this man against so many men in the Vatican, so many bishops and so many priests who have no ‘flippin’ idea about how men are supposed to act and then act like men.
I’ve been hearing for years about the easy availability of young Haitian boys offered to deviant tourists. I suppose this applies to young girls as well. But in our own nation much of this abuse occurs in homes. You don’t have to travel to exotic places to find children at risk of sexual exploitation. Our local pregnancy help center had a 15-year-old come in who was being trafficked by her own mother. A 12-year-old girl was exploited & murdered in her own home by her mother’s live-in boyfriend. He’d already had a conviction for child molestation in a previous relationship with a single mom.
Fatherlessness is a real contributing factor. Per law enforcement, the highest risk environment for child abuse is when a single mother allows non biologically related men entry into her home. That’s probably not the stuff that sells movies or sits well with the politically correct. And it’s a great deal harder to fix because it’s a cultural trouble. I live in a state with the 2nd highest number of fatherless homes. We are also the 2nd poorest state in the nation. And we have one of the highest crime rates. It’s all connected.
I agree that fatherless youths is a plague in our culture. That said, in all my years of providing professional counseling, nothing matched my horror than a father who came in to see me along with his wife and four young children. This father was pimping his entire family to make pornographic films that were put up on their pay-for-view internet site. This was the way this father “supported” his family financially. Where does one begin to salvage these individual lives?
Wow. What can you say? The levels of personal depravity you hear about never cease to amaze.
I’ve been hearing lately about people selling child porn to support their drug habits but not fathers doing that to support their families. And exploiting their own family members. Good grief.
🙁
330,000 little boys in France were raped by 3,000 catholic pedophile priests, and it barely made the news, because people EXPECT that from catholics.
DId you hear about THAT?
It was in every major newspaper, and catholics just don’t care.
Your rage about abuse is understandable and shared. But your slander of all Catholic is both unreasonable and unfair. Countless Catholics have worked to expose such abuse. This very publication, under the editorship of Phil Lawler, helped expose abuse and coverup in Boston and other places. And, yes, for the record, we published this news.
Which is far more than can be said for the mainstream media in the US when it comes to abuse of children in, say, the public school system.
I hope this is considered a feature film with good distribution that all people of good will can support instead of one of the limited distribution films that you have to travel a hundred miles to support or just buy a dvd a few months later.
If it is, go support it. I’m tired of just joining boycotts.
It’s so hypocritical that catholics claim to care about children now.
330,000 little boys in France were raped by 3,000 catholic pedophile priests, and it barely made the news, because people EXPECT that from catholics.
And of course, they will delete this message because it is the TRUTH.
Jesus said child rape was UNFORGIVABLE (Matt 18:6-14), and everyone who supported it will get eternal damnation.
That means every single catholic, thank God.